Container shipping moves roughly $4 trillion worth of manufactured goods annually, from designer dresses to electronics, food and heavy machinery. It also triggered a reckoning among policy makers in many countries, from Germany to Japan, that have seen commercial shipping as a key strategic asset for their economies. The failure of South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping in 2016 sent shock waves around the world and particularly in Seoul, where the world’s eighth-largest container line was considered an important cog in the country’s export-driven economy. It also controls 37% of container capacity in and out of Japan, the world’s third-largest economy. “If you focus on the services that come to and go from Japan, our competitors are totally incomparable with us,” he said.

Source: Wall Street Journal May 11, 2018 09:22 UTC